Questions on Cooling and power

[erikwestlund]

I am building a new PC, and have some questions on cooling and power.

The rig will have:

* Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard
* XP 2100+ with Dynatron DC1206BM-L610PCu HSF
* 512MB Corsair XMS pc2700 memory
* 2 x 40GB 7200 RPM Western Digital HDs running RAID
* ATI 64MB Radeon 700D DDR Video
* SBLive Platinum 5.1 Sound w/ Live Drive
* Pioneer Slot DVD 16x
* LG 24x10x40x CD-RW
* A-Top 821 case w/ 350w Power Supply
* NIC, Floppy, etc.

I'm not looking to play games much... just want a good system. I paid $765 for all the parts + shipping, so I think i got an okay deal. that's not reall the issue.

I have questions about cooling and power.

Will the 350 w power supply power all those components well?

As far as cooling goes, the heatsink I bought was rated for an XP 2200+ and has got okay reviews for what I can find. I'm not looking to overclock, but I want it to run cool. I bought Arctic silver 3 grease. The only thing I was considering maybe replacing on the heatsink was the fan. Specs on the fan. Do you think this will be worth it? Or should I just evaluate its performance after I set everything up?

Noise is not an issue with the case, and I'm a big geek who wants good airflow. I bought 3 80mm case fans with the parts. Two inwin sleave bearing fans, and one Antec dual bearing fan.

I plan on putting two in the front, staggered (the case has room for four fans. I will put one INWIN on the top left, and the other below on the top right.) and blowing air through the case. They will each sort of line up with a hard drive. I have four slots for hard drives so I plan on putting them in the first and third.

I will put the Antec case fan on the back blowing air out.

Also, there is a side fan.

I am considering buying hard drive coolers. I am considering getting something like these to put on each hard drive.

The power supply is 350 watts and only has a back fan, no lower fan.


So I guess my questions are:

* Are the amount of fans over kill?
* Are the HD fans worth it? Even when I have two 80 mm fans blowing on the hard drives?
* Should I get like an exhaust blower that fits where a PCI card would go?
* Will my power supply support all the components and fans?

My gut feeling now is the three case fans plus side fan and CPU fan will work well enough especially since I'm not over clocking.

Should I buy the HD coolers. Should I get a new fan for the heatsink? What kind?

Thanks for the help!

 

[mechBgon]

The HDD coolers are probably overkill, likewise for the PCI slot fan. I tried to find specs on A-Top's site for the 350W PSU, to see what its 3.3V + 5V output is like, but they don't have a listing for the 350W.

That heatsink/fan unit should do fine, especially since you've got some case ventilation planned. Be aware that the new revision 2.0 VRXP board does read the internal diode of the CPU, so don't be aghast if you see readings in the 60C+ area.